William's Song a Day Blog - est. September 2007

From: Year of the Cat ; Year: 1976; Genre: Rock Heard this one today whilst on the road; Al Stewart has always been one of my very early influences due to the fact that my mom and dad played his music quite a bit. As with most of his songs, the music and the lyrics go together to make an excellent blend of artistic creativity. I really like how his songs are more or less a little story/film told to music and is very intricately and vividly written.   Hear Flying Sorcery on YouTube.       My song pick 1 year ago today: Stone Temple Pilots - Down   My song pick 2 years ago today: Steeleye Span - Fire & Ice   My song pick 3 years ago today: Béla Fleck & The Flecktones - Weed Whacker My song pick 4 years ago today: Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band- The Fire Down Below My song pick 5 years ago today: Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) My song pick 6 years ago today: Judas Priest - You Got Another Thing Commin' My song pick 7 y...

From: Year of the Cat ; Year: 1976; Genre: Soft Rock Probably this, the most famous hit from Al Stewart, is best known for its vivid lyrics filled with both describing a romantic rendezvous in an exotic "far off" locale and and others that are more symbolic and vague. For me though the music is the main draw, which is quite exquisite and technical with an extended solo section done on three instruments. All this is done perfectly in a way as to not scare away the more pop oriented fans from enjoying the piece. Hear Year of the Cat on YouTube. My song pick one year ago today: Midnight Oil - Dreamworld My song pick two years ago today: Primus - John the Fisherman My song pick three years ago today: Pearl Jam - Go My song pick four years ago today: The Ventures - Beethoven's Sonata in C#-Minor My song pick five years ago today: Stuart Hamm - Count Zero My song pick six years ago today: Louis Armstrong - La Vie en Rose My song pick seven years ago to...

This is one of those songs that my parents played a lot when I was young, and so it is deeply ingrained into my mind. Even without this exposure to it, I still believe that it is an excellent song and probably would have been one I liked anyway. This song drips of gooey sentimentality subject matter wise, which is probably one of the main reasons for this its popularity. It is sometimes nice to have this one on while you are musing about the past. Musically, this song is quite complex in arrangements, there is always something different in the song to keep my attention most of the time. Here is the studio version on YouTube. +